| Player 1 |
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#player1 Midori Midori
#player2 James James
>Midori: EJU 8G JEU +20 20
>James: CEELOOU 9E COOL +19 19
#note It's between this and a host of other plays (exchanges, COULEE or COOEE H4) for best play. Basically, the idea is to try and either get a good leave or to play for a few points. I decided to do the latter, because COOL isn't often likely to land me in an irreparable hole, though any of HE/WE/YE or anything further could be bad because it would give me an unfriendly board.
>Midori: DEL 10F DEL +28 48
>James: ADEEPTU 11C DUPE +18 37
#note Quackle suggests a tie between this, DUE 11D, UPDATE 11A, and TAUPE 11B. I don't really like UPDATE for the slotting of a letter in the triple-triple lane, and the others are all fairly even to me. So I picked what I thought was the best leave (AET) and ran with it.
>Midori: AN 12D NA +12 60
>James: AEFMORT 10B FAT +20 57
#note Quackle prefers OF 10C, which definitely has the better leave, or FA 10B for 2 more points. I think OF is a better play because the M at 7I is not likely to be blocked anytime soon as a spot to play and I have some innate advantages, then, when looking for a bingo spot.
>Midori: AA 13C AA +8 68
>James: AEMOORY 7I MOORY +24 81
#note Best.
>Midori: DEIK M3 DIKE. +26 94
>James: AAEEILN K5 AE.LIAN +28 109
#note Best.
>Midori: M 6J M. +20 114
>James: BDETTUV L10 BUTTED +28 137
#note BUTTED, in retrospect, is probably too open a play, because a play of 1 tile is likely to mean she has something good in her other 6. That being said, I need to play somewhat offensively because I have to make sure I can withstand a bingo. BUTT J10 seems to be a decent idea - it allows me a BUTTE spot and scores well without opening the triple-triple.
Quackle does favor BUTT J10 over BUTTED, which is second best along with BUT J10.
>Midori: EZ 14J ZE. +32 146
>James: AIOPSVY 15L .AVY +33 170
#note Quackle likes DAVY best, but also suggests VIA or OVA 15H. I think that makes sense, particularly OVA. There is no danger of a bingo on the bottom and with that I save up YIPS L2 for next turn as a possibility, since Midori's attention is likely to be focused on the D. After YIPS, I would score 29 + 36 over these two turns, meaning there's a good chance I'd have a small lead on a very closed board.
>Midori: IX 14B XI +20 166
#note With this, if I was in Midori's shoes, I'd try to play off as many tiles that weren't the IX to try and draw NIX N4, while diverting my opponent's attention. I may forfeit a triple or make them paranoid I'm about to use it, or something along those lines, but this kind of play is very weak. Firstly, I'm more likely than not to be able to use this against her, and secondly, if I do, the board closes again and she has less tiles left in the bag (i.e. less time to try and close whatever the gap is going to be).
>James: CEIOOPS 15A PISO +33 203
#note I chickened out on PISCO 15A, thinking it was just CISCO. COOPS L1 is seen as second best, then PISO, but after a bunch of two-tile plays, I like not giving Midori a bingo lane for a 7-letter bingo.
>Midori: GV 4L V.G +14 180
>James: ?BCEFOT O1 FOBs +31 234
#note I'm fairly sure by this point Midori *has* to have some kind of bingo that I would be hard-pressed to come back from. That being said, I have nothing I can do to really block this up except using a blank for 31 points.
Thing is, do I really need to do something drastic? OF J9 scires 31, maening that an 80-point bingo from her would mean I'd be down 30. With a blank on this board, would that be worth the gamble for me? There are Ws I could try to use for more points on the board as well, but I couldn't really see much more aside from making a bingo, which is possible because of the C at 9E that I can more likely use than she'd notice to block.
In this case, discretion played the better part of valor to me and I decided to block severely. However, if she played something like WAG N2, it'd be bad to the same point again.
>Midori: AIIN 15G INIA +23 203
>James: CEINORT E2 NECROTI. +74 308
#note And I get completely lucky. It is so much better to be lucky than good.
>Midori: HITW 4B WIT.H +26 229
>James: EGNNOSU A1 GNUS +33 341
#note I missed ENGINOUS C1, which would seal the game. SEGNO A4 was also cute, as is NOGS A1 because I hold onto the U to use the Q with, but I thought there being C3 and 8D to play QI was sufficient.
>Midori: ?EEIQRR 2D E.QuIRER +88 317
#note I was fairly sure this was bad and INQUIRER was good (having seen this come up a lot), but if I was wrong, she could still win.
>James: EENORSW 1H SEWER +42 383
#note And I win but miss more points. SEROW 1H.
>Midori: AGHLRST N2 HA. +30 347
>James: NO J9 ON +13 396
>James: (GLRST) +12 408
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